PCB News - The future development trend of PCB industry

With the industrial transfer and upgrading, the implementation of the new labor contract law, the rising cost of urban living brought about by the transformation of the economic structure, and the difficulty and mobility of the post-80s and 90s workforce, PCB manufacturers are experiencing more and more serious problems. The challenges of labor shortages and rising labor costs, and the resulting impact on production plans, product quality and profitability. At the same time, with the improvement of robot performance and the decline of prices, replacing the traditional "automation equipment + manual operation" production model with "automation equipment + industrial robot operation" will become the trend of the transformation and development of the PCB industry.

1. Types and characteristics of industrial robots

Industrial robot is a kind of multi-functional, multi-degree-of-freedom mechatronics automatic mechanical equipment and system that can complete certain operation tasks in the manufacturing process through repeated programming and automatic control. It can be combined with the manufacturing host or production line to form a single machine or multiple The machine automation system realizes a variety of production operations such as handling, welding, sorting, assembling and spraying without unattended participation.

Since the first generation of robots came out in the United States in the early 1960s, the development and application of industrial robots have developed rapidly, and they have become increasingly widely used in production. They have become important highly automated equipment in modern manufacturing.

Industrial robots are mainly composed of two parts: the main body (including the mechanical torso, the motor, and the reducer) and the electronic control (including the drive and control system). Its function is to use the terminal actuator to replace the human hand to grab objects or tools to complete different tasks . There are currently three mainstream industrial robots, including: SCARA (four-axis parallel joint robot), DELTA (parallel robot) and six-axis multi-joint robots (including six-axis or more multi-joint robots and derived dual-arm robots).

The most notable features of industrial robots are summarized in the following three points:

1, programmable. The further development of production automation is flexible automation. Industrial robots can be reprogrammed according to the needs of their work tasks and changes in the environment. Therefore, they can play a very good function in the flexible manufacturing process of small batches and multiple varieties with balanced and high efficiency. It is an important part of the flexible manufacturing system (FMS). component.

2, personification. Industrial robots have parts similar to human walking, waist rotation, big arms, forearms, wrists, and claws in the mechanical structure, and they are controlled by a computer. In addition, intelligent industrial robots have many human-like "biological sensors", such as skin-type contact sensors, force sensors, load sensors, vision sensors, acoustic sensors, language functions, and so on. Sensors improve the adaptive ability of industrial robots to the surrounding environment.

3, versatility. In addition to specially designed dedicated industrial robots, general industrial robots have better versatility when performing different tasks. For example, changing the hand end manipulators (claws, tools, etc.) of an industrial robot can perform different tasks.

2. Application cases of industrial robots in the PCB industry

In the early days, industrial robots were mainly used in the automobile manufacturing industry to complete welding, assembling, handling, spraying and other tasks in the automobile production process. These links did not require high accuracy and speed of the robot. However, the situation in the PCB industry is relatively complicated. The application of robots in the PCB industry is mainly reflected in the functions of loading and unloading, flipping, sorting, positioning and testing in each process, replacing manual operations with PCB board processing equipment and testing equipment. Due to the diversity and complexity of PCB boards, there are single-layer boards, double-layer boards, multilayer boards, flexible boards, rigid-flex boards, non-porous boards and porous boards, which result in more requirements for front-end actuators; There are requirements for positioning accuracy and work cycle requirements, so the requirements for robot technology and integration technology are also higher in the application of industrial robots. After nearly two years of exploration and practice in the industry, we have worked hard to help customers solve problems, meet customer needs, and have accumulated experience in industry applications. At present, we have mature solutions for many process links in the PCB industry, such as AOI, exposure machine, target drilling machine (OPE, XZ), silver paste filling, text inkjet, browning pre-stacking, finished product packaging Disk, OSP, finished product cleaning, DOME sheet turn-up film, LCD assembly, etc.

Third, the advantages of industrial robots instead of labor in the PCB industry

Like the automobile industry and other manufacturing industries, the replacement of labor in the PCB industry by industrial robots brings many advantages to enterprises.

1. Reduce labor, speed up work cycle, and improve work efficiency. The robot can achieve high-speed repetitive operations, which can be much higher than the manual work cycle, which brings about a substantial increase in work efficiency and a reduction in labor costs and management costs.

2. Improve operation accuracy and product quality. The robot can use programming and vision systems to achieve accurate positioning and repeat accuracy, effectively improving the quality of products.

3. Avoid potential threats to the health and safety of workers from the working environment and save investment in environmental safety.

4. Reduce the reduction in efficiency and quality and the accident rate caused by the effect of repetitive and boring processes on the status of workers;

5. Optimize the work process and reduce the work space.

6. Effectively reduce material consumption rate.

7, can work continuously for 24 hours and work in a dark light environment;

8. The manufacturing process can be made flexible. In the future, there will be more and more small batch orders in the PCB industry. The use of industrial robots can greatly enhance the flexibility of production and realize the rapid delivery of orders.

9. The promotion of brand image and reputation. The application of industrial robots has further improved the automation level of PCB manufacturers, drove improvements in product quality, production efficiency, cost control, and responsiveness, and improved the overall competitiveness of manufacturers in the industry.

Fourth, the application prospects of industrial robots in the PCB industry

At present, the application of industrial robots in the PCB industry has just started, and there are still many problems that need to be solved. Many work lines in the PCB industry are non-standard products. In the process of robot application, they are limited by the existing work space, limited by the capabilities of the original equipment, and facing the influence of different PCB board material factors, it is necessary to consider the application of various sensors to improve the robot. At the same time, we must also consider training a group of employees who can operate and maintain robots for manufacturers.

The application of industrial robots in the PCB industry in the future will show the following trends:

1. From single station or single line application to multi-line application. It is difficult for existing PCB companies to fully introduce robots to achieve automated production, and they need to invest a lot of money for transformation, but they can carry out step-by-step transformation on qualified single stations and single lines, and gradually expand the scope of application after significant results are obtained.

2. From the application of a simple robot to the application combined with other intelligent equipment such as AGV. Most of the material transfer between the existing process production lines is manual operation, and it can be distributed and implemented to realize the orderly transfer of materials with the combination of robots and AGVs.

3. The existing PCB factory is mainly for partial applications, and the construction of the new factory will be planned as a whole, and the application of robots and AGVs will be directly introduced.

4. The combination of industrial robots and the Internet of Things will make the manufacturing process more intelligent and flexible.